vidalia's in lawrenceville - anyone?

[amore x0]

Ultimately I am looking for a place to celebrate my anniversary. I would like to try a BYOB in the Hamilton/Lawrenceville/Princeton - I will be staying on RT 1 and would like to eat close by. Has anyone tried this place? Or know of another worth trying? Thanks !

[amore x0]

Thanks for the help everyone - we typically are "fine dinners" (if you will) and never really do the whole BYOB thing. Im just trying to change it up a little bit and do something different. I'v been to a few of the mentioned places, just never really realized there was this small cluster of byob's in Lawrenceville so I was thinking to give it a try. I'll start checking into reviews for these places you mentioned !

[njfoodies]

BYO is the way to go! We search out BYO's all the time as we love to collect wine, and have pretty good palates to boot. I truly think that we are spoiled to have so many great BYO's in NJ, and we couldn't be any more thankful for that! One of the beauties about this area for sure! -mJ

[amore x0]

yes i am starting to notice ! i have read a lot of great reviews of byob's on your blog in our area .. so thanks a lot for the help :)

[CaviarAndCodfish]

If being a BYOB isn't too important to you, I would definitely go to Elements in Princeton. My favorite restaurant in the area.

[amore x0]

we dine at elements frequently .. enough to not make it a "special" place anymore, unfortunately ! it is absolutely a wonderful place though. thank you !

[njfoodies]

I really Vidalia, and our last visit there was great. I prefer Vidalia over Acacia, but that is just me. Regardless, both are good. Blue Bottle is a great suggestion, and I highly recommend it. The Ferry House is yet another great suggestions as well. One other suggestions would be Rat's at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton. -mJ

-----
Vidalia Restaurant
21 Phillips Ave, Lawrence Township, NJ 08648

Blue Bottle Cafe
101 E Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525

Ferry House
32 Witherspoon St, Princeton, NJ 08542

[MercerChow]

Vidalia's is not bad, but is a small and crowded room - not necessarily the best choice for an anniversary dinner. Within a couple of blocks are Acacia (as mentioned), the new Dennis Foy, and Chambers Walk. Any of these three would have a more relaxed atmosphere and comparable or better food.

For other area BYOBs I concur with Blue Bottle in Hopewell and Brothers Moon just down the street.

-----
Brothers Moon
7 W Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525

Chambers Walk Restaurant
2667 Main St, Lawrence Township, NJ 08648

Vidalia Restaurant
21 Phillips Ave, Lawrence Township, NJ 08648

Blue Bottle Cafe
101 E Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525

[glutton]

Just a couple minutes north of Princeton on Route 27 is Eno Terra. Good wine list, good menu, nice setting. That might fit the bill for you.

Ferry House is not bad, but at times I've found it to be a cartoonish version of high-end recipes on trendy NYC menus. That's probably a poor way of describing it, but what I'm getting at is that the dishes sometimes look over-the-top theatrical in their presentation, they sometimes have so many flavors going on that they overwhelm, etc. Some dishes were completely fine, but some dishes just did not work in my opinion.

-----
Eno Terra
4484 Route 27, Kingston, NJ 08528

Ferry House
32 Witherspoon St, Princeton, NJ 08542

[glutton]

Actually, I should have mentioned two other places.

First, you could go to Acacia in Lawrenceville. It's on Route 206 in downtown L'ville.

Second, if you're willing to go a bit further afield (15 minutes from Princeton) and bring a bottle of wine, you could have a really nice meal at Blue Bottle in Hopewell. That probably gets the highest marks in the area.

-----
Blue Bottle Cafe
101 E Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525

[BeeZee]

If you are staying on Route 1, you can drive north up Washington Rd (Rt.526) 5 minutes to Princeton and hit the Ferry House. DH and I went there for our anniv and enjoyed it.

-----
Ferry House
32 Witherspoon St, Princeton, NJ 08542